Rajasthan Patrika revamps website to get in sync with its national plans

A fresh look, audio, video and interactive features form the revamped website's new features

When & #BANNER1 & # Rajasthan Patrika moved beyond its home turf (Rajasthan) to Madhya Pradesh with the launch of its Bhopal edition, it was christened as Patrika there. The next destination is obviously Indore. In the scenario, it was logical for the paper to align its online version, rajasthanpatrika.com too. Hence, patrika.com has come up with a revamped look and more interactive content.

The website hopes not to restrict itself to news (Indian, World, Sports, Business, Entertainment, Health and Science, Education), but move beyond into e-commerce with online shopping and travel bookings.

Besides the revamped logo, patrika.com will feature audio and video updates and interactive features such as SMS subscription, polls and discussion forums as well. That, as per Kothari, explains the website's new tagline: 'Local news, globally'.

While the website earlier used a True Type font, which had to be downloaded to view the website legibly, it would now use a Unicode Font for easier access.

Padmasana Kothari

Arvind Kalia

Asked how the website would be different from the current Hindi websites like Jagran (which has tied up with Yahoo! for online solutions), Naidunia and Webdunia and online versions of Hindi newspapers like Hindustan and Navbharat Times, Kothari says, "We've been there for 10 years, while others have had their online versions in the past few years only. While most of these websites are region specific, we'll have content from across India. We'll also be the first website to go bilingual with content both in Hindi and English. Connecting NRIs, especially to their hometowns, is one area that we plan to touch with board discussion forums and polls."

Another additional feature the website promises is detailed news coverage from 50 cities across India, such as Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore, Chennai, Lucknow, Patna, Hyderabad, and Kolkata. It will have separate sub-domains for these cities.

According to Arvind Kalia, marketing head, Patrika, the website would be promoted extensively in individual cities, particularly the 50 cities it plans to cover. Besides using its current print network of more than 13 million claimed readers, it will be using other websites too. "Contextual advertising through Google and virals will form a major part of our online media plan. Our short code service, 56969 too would be used judicially."

Virals, according to Kalia, will be targeted at NRIs and professional in Tier-II and Tier-III towns. "We hope that our viewership will grow significantly," he adds.

He claims that the website, as of now, has about 27 lakh page views a month, and about 20 per cent of the audience comprises NRIs, mainly from the US.

The promotional campaign has been designed in-house. The company hasn't felt the need to hire any agency as of now.

With the revamp, the website hopes to attract new advertisers too. Kothari says, "We have special city pages that will extensively cater to the need of local advertisers and connect them to the web. National advertisers, who have interest in the overseas Indians' segment, too are on our radar."